Granite 4.2 30B vs Beam 1.0
Which is better for the money: Granite 4.2 30B by IBM or Beam 1.0 by Reflection? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Beam 1.0 scores 17.6 points higher (30.3 vs 12.7) but costs 2.9× as much to run the benchmark ($319 vs $111; both mid-range class). Pick Beam 1.0 when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Granite 4.2 30B.
| Metric | Granite 4.2 30B | Beam 1.0 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 12.7 | 30.3 | +138.6% Beam 1.0 is 2.4× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $110.83 | $318.73 | +187.6% Beam 1.0 is 2.9× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 36.08s | 8.02s | −77.8% Beam 1.0 is 77.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.16 / $0.65 | $0.40 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Beam 1.0 vs Granite 4.2 30B: 138.6% more intelligence, 187.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 77.8% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Granite 4.2 30B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
- Beam 1.0 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Granite 4.2 30BBeam 1.0Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-30b/reflection-beam · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/granite-4-2-30b/reflection-beam?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill